Finance Minister Mike de Jong said the NDP 'commitment' to freeze B.C. Hydro rates and ICBC premiums for four years will cost a combined $3.2 billion. But the NDP has not committed to these things.Gerry Kahrmann / PNG

B.C. voters need to get full and accurate information before they cast their ballots on May 9, says the Liberals’ Mike de Jong.

“Before they can make an informed choice, they need to know the facts,” the Liberal finance minister said at a heavily hyped presentation on the NDP’s “deceitful” election platform.

I agree with him.

And that’s why I was disgusted to then watch de Jong criticize billions of dollars worth of spending promises that the NDP has not made in this election campaign.

He said the NDP “commitment” to freeze B.C. Hydro rates and ICBC premiums for four years will cost a combined $3.2 billion.

The NDP has not committed to these things, so I asked de Jong why he included them in his presentation.

“In the absence of information suggesting what their rates will be, they said they’re going to freeze the rates,” he sputtered.

Not for four years, they haven’t. Anybody who thinks any government will freeze Hydro and ICBC rates for four years needs to have their head examined.

Here’s what the NDP has promised: a two-year freeze on Hydro rates, which just shot up 3.5 per cent on April 1.

On ICBC, the NDP has promised not to implement a 42-per-cent “worst case scenario” rate hike contained in an ICBC premium analysis.

The NDP said they would conduct a post-election “review” of ICBC rates with the goal of keeping premiums low, which is the same position as the Liberals.

The NDP has certainly not proposed a four-year freeze of ICBC or Hydro rates, but de Jong alleged it anyway, predicting it will drive the budget into the ditch.

De Jong also said the NDP has promised to eliminate Medical Services Plan premiums, alleging an NDP government might jack up the sales tax or personal income taxes or corporate taxes to pay for the lost revenue.

But the Liberals have also promised to eliminate MSP, so I asked de Jong how he would pay for his own promise.

“We haven’t said,” he replied. “Our objective is to eliminate MSP premiums. We don’t anticipate any further reductions unless the economy were to grow.”

This is what de Jong said in his own budget backgrounder just two months ago: “As B.C. moves toward elimination of MSP premiums, the province will consult with British Columbians to determine the timing and structure of the change. This work continues and details will be announced over the coming year.”

Yet de Jong told me Wednesday that his own plan to eliminate MSP is not an “unequivocal promise.”

Here’s the important distinction: The NDP has promised to eliminate MSP within four years. They promised to appoint an independent “MSP Elimination Panel” to advise on how to fund health care after the MSP is gone.

The Liberals are fully within their rights to question where the money will come from to pay for this pricey promise. But to refuse to explain where they will get the money themselves to fund their own MSP-elimination “objective” is a total joke.

As I said in an earlier column, voters should be wary of the NDP’s promise to deliver so many expensive new programs and initiatives and still balance the budget. Take it with a grain of salt, if not the whole shaker, I said.

But for the Liberals to attack over $3 billion worth of “commitments” the NDP simply hasn’t made is just a bunch of alternative-facts garbage.

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